Famalicão was the eighth City Council in the country, the second in the North that invested the most to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Between March 2020 and March 2021, the municipality of Famalicão had an impact of more than seven million euros on municipal accounts due to the measures it developed in response to Covid-19.
The figures appear in the Court of Auditors' report no. 8/2021, dedicated to the "Impact of the measures
adopted within the scope of COVID-19 in the Mainland Local Administration entities", which analysed "the exceptional regime of public procurement, authorisation of expenditure and measures to promote and guarantee the response capacity of local authorities within the scope of the pandemic", as well as analysing "expenditure data related to Covid-19 reported by local authorities".
In the North region, Vila Nova de Famalicão is only surpassed by Vila Nova de Gaia. The municipalities of Lisbon and Cascais head the list. The financial impact of the covid-19 response measures adopted by mainland municipalities exceeded 500 million euros (ME) between March 2020 and March 2021, according to an estimate released today by the Court of Auditors.
Among the measures taken by the famalicense autarchy are those that involved the acquisition of personal protective equipment, the investment made in infrastructure to support health entities, the creation of a temporary emergency Covid in Famalicão Hospital and the Vaccination Centre of Vale S. Cosme, the subsidies and exemptions granted by the local authority under the Resume Famalicão programme, and the allocation of staff to respond to the pandemic situation, particularly in the social area and in supporting health entities, as exemplified by the largest logistics operation set up at the Vaccination Centre.
"The report of the Court of Auditors confirms the muscular response that Vila Nova de Famalicão municipality had towards the pandemic, an extraordinary and necessary reaction at the level of support to the most disadvantaged classes and sectors, and in the support to health entities", says the Mayor, Mário Passos.